User Reviews

In the wake of his huge commercial and critical success with Sam Weston's quintessential couples classic TALK DIRTY TO ME (and prior to embarking on an apparently endless series of sequels thereof), producer Jerry Ross came up with WICKED SENSATIONS. Clearly designed to appeal to the same audience demographic, it bears the one time only directorial credit of "Ron Chrones" (IMDb proffers the even more anonymous "Robert Smith") who may or may not be Ron Sullivan a/k/a "Henri Pachard". Allow me to present my case for the defense. Ron is, of course, the filmmaker's real first name. "Chrones" might stand for chronos, the Greek word for time, "Pachard" being derived from Picard watches. The deejay's voice on the radio accompanying the film's first scene between Paul Thomas and Mai Lin sounds suspiciously like Ron's and, to top it off, his trademark fetish (a toilet tryst, involving P.T. and Cris Cassidy) is also present and accounted for. Then again, this movie proved just a tad less popular than the TALK DIRTY phenomenon, so surely Sullivan would have fessed up to its authorship by now if this were the case. So maybe not…

TALK's questionable "hero", legendary John Leslie, is amusingly cast against type as shy novelist Pearson Bokamper – one of the best character names ever in porn – whose carnal knowledge barely extends beyond his long term, taken for granted girlfriend Heather, played very well by a dowdied down Annette Haven. His own bedroom antics being a bit of a bore, Pearson has an agreement with his best friend and next door neighbor George (P.T.) that allows him to spy on the latter's casual pick-ups. This obviously annoys Heather who urges him to seek psychiatric help. Stopping by his publisher's office, he meets and is immediately smitten by good time girl Candy (elusive Diana Holt, fleeting star of a handful of films including Bob Chinn's underrated SADIE and the excellent Sam Weston/Stu Segal collaboration HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIES) who announces her imminent departure to a posh ski resort. This piece of plot-advancing information is cleverly presented as some sort of "breaking point" between two sex scenes taking place simultaneously. While publisher Milton Ingley (a/k/a "Michael Morrison") is "auditioning" perky airhead Sonya Sommers (from Gerard Damiano's NEVER SO DEEP), secretary Susannah French (titular star of Anthony Riverton's THE OTHER SIDE OF JULIE) tries to bestow oral favors upon our befuddled anti-hero. Having never actually made it to the shrink, Pearson lies to Heather that his aberrant behavior's all down to bad toilet training, prompting the movie's best line as Annette shrieks she has sent out a pervert and got back an idiot. Asking her to leave, he sets out in pursuit of Candy.

If the film's first half offers a pleasant mix of light comedy and breezy sex, it really lets its hair down in the second part, kicking off with the pair of crazy hitchhikers (Holly McCall, Best Supporting Actress award-winner for Weston's NOTHING TO HIDE, and Holly Page who appeared in Damiano's SATISFIERS OF ALPHA BLUE) Pearson and George pick up en route. An inebriated Cris Cassidy accidentally wanders into the chalet's men's room, a mistake she's hardly likely to regret when the opportunistic George puts the moves on her. Leslie's sweaty, breathless encounter with the object of his desire leaves him deeply in love, Candy leaving him with the kicker she already has a boyfriend with whom she shares an obviously very open relationship. This revelation proves too much for the uptight Pearson who realizes that the girl he left behind may have meant more to him than he realized. Their time apart has been beneficial for Heather as well, who has transformed herself from frumpy caterpillar to glamorous butterfly, in other words the Annette Haven we all know and love, for the tender kiss 'n' make up conclusion with George now peeping in from behind the curtains !

Nicely written with typically solid production values for a movie made smack dab in the middle of the much-vaunted "Golden Age", WICKED SENSATIONS offers meaty roles to several of that era's finest fornicating thespians. Leslie and Haven, both stripped of their familiar sheen of glossy perfection, reveal hitherto unexpected facets of their tremendous talent. As in Svetlana's "F", they also happen to make a really good screen team, even when they're not pawing each other's private parts. Thomas perfects the best friend role he was to portray so many times throughout his distinguished career, most memorably perhaps in Gary Graver's ECSTASY GIRLS movies. If truth be told, Holt – as awesomely adorable as she is – kind of lets the side down as the devil may care damsel, apparently reading her lines from poorly placed cue cards if her halting delivery is any indication. Fortunately, her great beauty more than makes up for it. While the central buddy relationship clearly echoes that of TALK DIRTY, the recipe's augmented with a genuinely touching romance between a pair of credible companions (not always a given in porn) and is certainly none the worse for it.